Structure is inseparable from architecture. It plays a prominent role in the perception of the design.

Mouton is a construction engineering office in Belgium. They work on a wide range of small and large structures, although they mainly focus on architectural projects and take pride in the fact that they become involved in the design process at a much earlier stage than most companies.

Their portfolio includes some staggeringly complicated structural buildings, including the Port House, Antwerp. A two-part construction phase building that includes a modernist structure 100 m long and 25 m wide that seemingly defies gravity as it hovers 28 meters over a restored Firehouse. A testimony to the truly staggering calculations and clever engineering it took to complete.

Then there is De Krook Library, Ghent, (header image) a building defined by its visible steel structure and staggering 15.5 m and 6.7 m cantilevered levels.

Software requirements

Whilst the largest portions of most of their projects use standard CAD tools, some of the special projects with complex geometry need more specialist tools. This means Mouton need software that can compute highly complex structural elements, use BIM data, and work on a universal .dwg file format. They also need software that allows them to make changes quickly, as in most projects decisions need to be made “very rapidly”.

Why BricsCAD?

BricsCAD is a very adaptive and open program. You can customise it to each project.

The team has only recently switched to BricsCAD. It took Piet and his team nearly a year of testing and trying different software packages before they made the switch to BricsCAD and they’re very glad they did.

Since we switched to BricsCAD, we design everything in 3D.

Before switching to BricsCAD they used a different approach. Each project combined 2D and 3D drawing elements. The biggest change for the team, since they switch to BricsCAD, is that the 3D model is now the basis for all the 2D drawings.

Read the full story on The Bricsys Blog